MyHQ turning Delhi&#039;s cafes into work-friendly spaces

| Updated: Apr 24, 2017 18:23 IST

By Pallavi Aman Singh New Delhi [India], Apr 24 (ANI): Forget work from home, now you can work from cafes and restaurants! For all the free-spirited mavericks, startup named MyHQ is using empty coffee spaces and turning them into co-working zones. After sunset, the restaurants are usually busy and the tables are full. But during the day, these eateries get transformed into cozy offices where no one gets fired for relaxing at work. The co-working spaces have been on the rise dominantly in Delhi-NCR and have largely developed as a culture across the globe. Witnessing the rise, the start-ups and even corporate are succumbing to the affordable and creative offices that break the monotony and confines of cubicles. To evangelise the generation of start-ups and freelancers and upbeat their creative quotient, MyHQ is building a chain of work-friendly yet rent-free workspaces by curating and taking up non-peak, excess real estate inventory lying inside beautifully designed cafes, restaurants, hotels, offices. Given the many advantages that it offers, like cost-efficiency, employee motivation, retention and increased productivity, this segment is gradually moving into a boom mode across India. Founded by two IIT Delhi graduates - Utkarsh Kawatra and Vinayak Agrawal, MyHQ believes in providing an excellent work experience at a space near you. And in order to achieve the same, this startup is investing strongly in technology that helps convert these every day coffee spaces into a perfect work station with just a tap of a button on the MyHQ App. MyHQ's target audience is an equal split between entrepreneurs, independent freelancers and mobile corporate professionals. "We're sort of trying to change the way how people work. We're trying to create work-friendly spaces everywhere. The belief behind the concept is that we know that there's enough real estate in the market, which has its peak hours and enough empty space during day time. It can very well be a lounge that doesn't get occupancy during day time, a restaurant which is two storey but has a ground floor which is available," Kawatra told ANI. "The perspective is that we can partner with these areas and convert them into work-friendly spaces. We've partnered with restaurant like Moets, hotel like Oyo, where we've taken up the lounge area, office like TrulyMadly, where we've taken up the cafeteria," he added. There is a growing market of independent freelancers, satellite corporate teams, sales teams and upcoming entrepreneurs. To cater to this, work from home is highly unproductive and co-working spaces are limited, not well maintained and expensive. MyHQ comes as a great sustainable and convenient solution which allows individuals to book work-friendly spaces on the go and be surrounded by a community of like-minded professionals. "USP is that we are offering vibrant work spaces. These are not regular congested 30 sq ft spaces. This is a full co-working area we have here. We can fit in about 20-30 people and we are good to go. We can fill this up at a price of Rs 5000, which is very cheap. The whole point is we can offer you co-working space at the price point of a coffee," the co-founder noted. "We have got a very cool merchandise like office stationary, coasters that say something like 'beta ideas Monday dekh ke nahi aatein hain,' laptop stickers and cool notebooks. We're trying to get table mats where people can play games while working. We are working on tent cards which say 'open to talk' or 'do not disturb.' Then there's networking box which we are trying to put at the places, where people can post their requirement and we can shuffle it around the spaces. We are putting books and games like chess, scrabble, so that people can have fun and work," he continued. Taking about the menu, Kawatra revealed, "We work with co-working menu as we understand that people are more health conscious when they are working every day. We've got a staff-meal option available at a cheap price point, wherein we offer chawal-sabzi, roti-sabzi. So, how cost-effective are the spaces? "You usually end up paying Rs 8000-9000 plus taxes per month in a co-working space, where you don't even get lunch. But we're on a cheaper side as your cost over a period of 20 days is nearly Rs 6000 and you are paying for lunch in that and no rent," he explained. Currently present across 15+ locations in NCR, subscribers can work out of any of these spaces with a single MyHQ pass. Each space is equipped with essentials such as high-speed wifi, discounted plans, free printing and access to all other office basics. Within seven months of its inception, MyHQ is already supporting a 350+ vibrant community of freelancers, entrepreneurs and corporate professionals. (ANI)